Monday, February 16, 2009

North Korea's "developing reality"

"One will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK"

By many public accounts Pyongyang is gearing up for a "test" of a new ICBM, excusing itself from explaining why a starving, but 'self-reliant' people so devoted to Juche Socialism, would be so determined to make a Great Leap Forward into 'space development.' A glorious future is fine place to imagine when it becomes necessary to deny the gnawing hunger of the present.

Everyone has seen the night light photographs of the Korean Peninsula from orbit. The lights are big and bright behind tens of thousands of American troops stationed in the DMZ and guarding the cease fire of 1953. In brilliant Seoul and across the Sea of Japan governments are alarmed.

In Alaska, U.S. ADM platforms are working three shifts, very wide awake, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares to visit Beijing, Kim Jong Il is in need of some attention, and he's not above the grand gesture. Tokyo remembers 2003, when a DPRK Ballistic Missile flew over the Home Islands and fell into the Pacific.

If Kim wants to throw rocks, he may discover a surprise left behind by former President Bush, in the form of a trip wire the new White House might not have bothered to trace down as yet.

Fortunately the result will not mean more additional orbital debris.

Nevertheless, in Seoul, The Korea Times believes the sickly leadership around Kim is "anxious to gain President Barack Obama's attention."

North Korea Monday denied that it was preparing to test-launch a long-range missile, claiming its recent moves are related to "space development."

A statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) was reminiscent of the North's comments in 1998, when it claimed a rocket it launched was really a satellite, according to Yonhap News.

The denial comes following intelligence reports from Seoul that North Korea is assembling a long-range missile at the country's eastern launch site.

"Recently the U.S. and some other countries claimed that the DPRK is making 'preparations for launching long-distance missile,'" the KCNA was quoted as saying.

"This is a vicious trick to put a brake on the wheel of not only the DPRK's building of military capability for self-defense but also scientific researches for peaceful purpose under the pretext of missile," it said.

The report also made clear North Korea will launch whatever it is that it has been preparing.

"One will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK," it said, "Space development is the independent right of the DPRK and the requirement of the developing reality."

North Korea also denied that it was trying to grab U.S. President Barack Obama's attention with its alleged missile activity, as analysts here have speculated.